A storage system typically comprises one or more storage devices into which information may be entered, and from which information may be obtained, as desired. The storage system includes a storage operating system that functionally organizes the system by, inter alia, invoking storage operations in support of a storage service implemented by the system. The storage system may be implemented in accordance with a variety of storage architectures including, but not limited to, a network-attached storage (NAS) environment, a storage area network (SAN), and a disk assembly directly attached to a client or host computer. The storage devices are typically disk drives organized as a disk array, wherein the term “disk” commonly describes a self-contained rotating magnetic media storage device. The term disk in this context is synonymous with hard disk drive (HDD) or direct access storage device (DASD).
The storage operating system of the storage system may implement a high-level module, such as a file system, to logically organize the information stored on volumes as a hierarchical structure of data containers, such as files and logical units. For example, each “on-disk” file may be implemented as set of data structures, i.e., disk blocks, configured to store information, such as the actual data for the file. These data blocks are organized within a volume block number (vbn) space that is maintained by the file system. The file system may also assign each data block in the file a corresponding “file offset” or file block number (fbn). The file system typically assigns sequences of fbns on a per-file basis, whereas vbns are assigned over a larger volume address space. The file system organizes the data blocks within the vbn space as a “logical volume”; each logical volume may be, although is not necessarily, associated with its own file system.
A known type of file system is a write-anywhere file system that does not over-write data on disks. If a data block is retrieved (read) from disk into a memory of the storage system and “dirtied” (i.e., updated or modified) with new data, the data block is thereafter stored (written) to a new location on disk to optimize write performance. A write-anywhere file system may initially assume an optimal layout such that the data is substantially contiguously arranged on disks. The optimal disk layout results in efficient access operations, particularly for sequential read operations, directed to the disks. An example of a write-anywhere file system that is configured to operate on a storage system is the Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL®) file system available from Network Appliance, Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif.
The storage system may be further configured to operate according to a client/server model of information delivery to thereby allow many clients to access data containers stored on the system. In this model, the client may comprise an application, such as a database application, executing on a computer that “connects” to the storage system over a computer network, such as a point-to-point link, shared local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), or virtual private network (VPN) implemented over a public network such as the Internet. Each client may request the services of the storage system by issuing file-based and block-based protocol messages (in the form of packets) to the system over the network. By supporting a plurality of file system protocols, such as the conventional Common Internet File System (CIFS) and the Network File System (NFS) protocols, the utility of the storage system is enhanced.
Often, it is desirable for a client (or administrator) to be aware of changes to the data containers served by the storage system. Typically, changes to data containers are maintained through the client's operating system, which locally manages storage and is thus aware of file and directory locations in that local storage. Two problems arise, however, with virtualized network storage systems, such as the logical volumes served by the storage system described above. First, the client's local operating system is generally unaware of the actual physical storage locations of the files and directories on the logical volumes of the storage system, and as such, is generally unable to monitor for changes, particularly those made by clients sharing the logical volumes. Second, the logical volumes, generally, are minimally “aware” of the files and directories at the data block level. In other words, the portions of the logical volumes that control the underlying physical storage (e.g., in a clustered storage system, as described herein) are only aware that data has changed, not to which particular files or directories that data belongs (e.g., handled by another portion of a clustered storage system).